King Ranch Chicken Casserole
Go to any potluck supper in Texas – or really, just about anywhere in the South – and someone is sure to show up with King Ranch Chicken Casserole. With its combo of chopped chicken, cheese, tortillas, and spicy tomatoes in a creamy sauce, this dish is a sure-fire hit.
The other reason this casserole is such a winner is that it’s amazingly easy to make. The key ingredient is Rotel, a zesty blend of chopped tomatoes and chili peppers in a can. You can choose from several levels of spice, depending on how hot you like it.
So all you have to do is fry up a chopped green pepper and onion, then mix that with your cubed chicken, Rotel, and a couple of cans of cream soup. Once that’s heated through, layer it in a baking pan with corn tortillas and cheese, and pop it in the oven. When it comes out, the cheese will be melted over top of everything, so every serving will come out hot, gooey, cheesy, creamy, and spicy. It’s everything you could ask for in a casserole, all in one pan.
How to make King Ranch Chicken Casserole
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In skillet melt your butter then add your pepper and onion and cook for a few minutes until tender.
- Add in your soups, Rotel and chicken and stir until combined and heated through.
- In a 9″x13″ pan layer 1/3 of your tortillas, then 1/3 chicken mixture, and 1/3 of shredded cheese. Repeat with 2 more layers, finishing with shredded cheese.
- Bake in oven for 40 minutes until cheese is melted.
Looking for more yummy Easy Casserole Recipes?
King Ranch Chicken Casserole
Email this recipe!
Get this recipe emailed straight to your inbox!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 green pepper diced
- 1 medium onion diced
- 10.5 oz can cream of mushroom soup
- 10.5 oz can cream of chicken soup
- 10 oz can rotel any spice level
- 2 cups cooked cubed or shredded chicken
- 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 14 corn tortillas cut into 1" pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In skillet melt your butter then add your pepper and onion and cook for a few minutes until tender.
- Add in your soups, Rotel and chicken and stir until combined and heated through.
- In a 9"x13" pan layer 1/3 of your tortillas, then 1/3 chicken mixture, and 1/3 of shredded cheese. Repeat with 2 more layers, finishing with shredded cheese.
- Bake in oven for 40 minutes until cheese is melted.
Video
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer: Family Fresh Meals is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.
Did You Make This Recipe?
Make sure to share it with me below!
Can you sub flour tortillas for the corn tortillas or would it be too soggy?
I think flour tortillas should work out just fine! Let us know how it works for you. I hope you love the recipe as much as we do 🙂
It doesn’t indicate what size tortillas. There are small, medium and large ones. I don’t know how many to use. I bought medium size ones.
The goal is to have enough to cover the dimension of the dish for each layer with torn pieces of tortilla shells. A package of 8 large should be sufficient for a 9×13 dish.
Our “senior” class at church made 4 pans of this for our “18-20s” class and they kept coming back for more! Big hit!! Delicious!
I have had this basic recipe for years with one difference…reg. Doritos crunched up.
I think flour would get soggy. You can use tortilla chips. I would go for corn tortillas honestly.
What can be used instead of Tortillas? No one in our family cares for them, nor for Taco shells, either. This casserole sounds yummy, otherwise.
Perhaps rice…?
Yum. That would be good.
Yes, I agree with Emily, would rice work for you?
Thanks Emily & Corey, rice is a great suggestion. I never thought of that.
I use crushed up Fritos and put them on bottom & top rather than the tortillas. The family loves it
That sounds like a yummy idea!
I use pasta noodles. Use sparingly, but turns out great.
Made this last night, it was so good everybody loved it very easy to make
This sounds like a recipe I would really like to try. Do you think this could be frozen since there is only 2 of us?
Yes, I would suggest freezing individual servings to grab and thaw out as needed.
This is so good and I did freeze it but what I did was leave out the tortillas because they become mushy when defrosted, just add them when you reheat.
Cut the recipe to 1/2 then you’ll only have to eat on it twice, its so good.
By green pepper do you mean green bell pepper? Or jalapeno?
Bell Pepper. I’ll clarify that in the ingredients.
One Tex Mex dish my hubs enjoys! Could this be made in a crock pot?
So happy you love guys love it! I haven’t tried this in the slow cooker yet.
I live in Canada and can’t find Rotel. Is there anything you can think of I could use to replace the Rotel? I was thinking diced canned tomatotes.
Yes, regular diced tomatoes will work. And you can also add in some green chiles to your diced tomatoes.
I used have this recipe in my file box. But lent it to someone. So, came to Family Fresh Meals to locate a good version. I’ll be making it this weekend. Sound perfect.
It was a hit! I’ll make it again. I had a moment when I realized a guest was mushroom adverse. I skipped the mushroom soup & added flour to the onion & green peppers to make a rue & then heavy cream – whew! Everyone loved it! Thanks for sharing.
I make this recipe often..Hubby loves it! Your recipe is easy to follow and pretty simple. We aiting for it t to finish in to he oven to right now😁
can you use flour tortillas
I haven’t tried that yet, but I think that should work out just fine.